CHAPTER IV 



MAHSER FISHING 



MAHSER fishing is, in my opinion, in some respects 

 superior to salmon fishing. In water which has 

 been much fished big mahser can only be caught 

 by spinning or trolling; and spinning, although 

 it requires a good deal of skill, is, I admit, inferior 

 to fly-fishing. If trolling is necessary, the sport 

 and the methods are much the same, whether 

 you are trying to catch mahser or salmon. Mahser 

 fishing has, however, some special features of 

 its own, which, to me at any rate, have always 

 made it very attractive. 



A mahser hooked in a hole with no other deep 

 water in the vicinity, will not, as a rule, leave the 

 place, and consequently sulks and shows poor 

 sport ; but the maddened rush for his lair of a 

 mighty fish, which is struck when on the feed up- 

 stream is something to be experienced. The 

 line fairly shrieks through the rings, and the 

 slightest check is fatal. I have had 200 yards of 

 line taken out in one terrific rush by a 35 -Ib. 

 mahser on the Bias River. The rush finished 

 him, and he did not move again, and was hauled 

 in at the end tamely enough. A mahser certainly 

 does not struggle against destiny as gamely as a 

 salmon, but after all it is the first two minutes 



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